is more valuable to the economy than money in the hands of the rich, because the poor and middle class tend to spend their money.

Economics is a pretty soft science, so there are no obvious answers, but it appears what happens when you raise wages is not that jobs get cut, but rather that prices go up slightly and profits go down slightly.

Now, automation is changing that somewhat, but that's going to continue to get cheaper and easier, so we'll have to address it at some point, might as well start doing it now.